Invade the world: check
Jeffrey Tucker writes:
Murray Rothbard used to joke that the United States should just get it over with and invade the whole world. It seems like the US has already done so. See the map. Just a few more countries to go, and troops will be everywhere on the whole planet.
After viewing the map, readers may be interested in the following fun facts.
How big is America’s empire? The Pentagon reports 761 bases worldwide. Of course, this figure does not include the secret bases used for torture.
How expensive is America’s empire? By Robert Higgs’ estimate, America spends $1 trillion every year on its defence budget. Not all of this is used on overseas interventionism, but much of it is.
Friends of Charles C. Lynch
As many of you probably know, I’m a strong supporter of all drug legalization on both ethical and practical grounds. However, here’s a story that should tug at the heart strings of even those who are staunchly in favour of prohibition.
Charles C. Lynch is the former owner and managing Caregiver for Central Coast Compassionate Caregivers in Morro Bay. The dispensary opened on April 1 2006 with the blessing of the city and even joined the Chamber of Commerce. In July 2006 the dispensary was granted a Conditional Use Permit from the City of Morro Bay to include a Medical Cannabis Nursery at the dispensary.
On March 29, 2007 the Local Sheriff and DEA agents raided the Dispensary and Home of Charles Lynch. Lynch was not arrested at the time and reopened the dispensary on April 7 2007 with the blessing of the City of Morro Bay.
On July 17, 2007 Lynch was arrested at his home and charged with Federal Marijuana Distribution. On August 5, 2008 Lynch was convicted in Federal Court for operating the Central Coast Compassionate Caregivers.
It’s particularly worrying to note that facts relevent to this trial were barred from the courtroom. For example, Owen Beck a former customer who used marijuana to alleviate his bone cancer pain and nausea caused by chemotherapy, was sent packing by U.S. District Judge George Wu.
Wu decreed there would be no talk of the symptoms marijuana relieves, no references to California’s recognition of marijuana as a medicine, no mention even of the phrase “medical marijuana” in front of the jury.
In short, there would be no explanation of how Lynch came to operate what prosecutors called a “marijuana store” in downtown Morro Bay for a year, openly serving more than 2,000 customers.
See http://www.friendsofccl.com/about.htm
For those interested, the Reason foundation and Drew Carey have been involved with drawing attention to this miscarriage of justice.
The Push
I’m pretty ignorant of Australian political history. And quite frankly I find it pretty boring.
However a friend of mine notified me of this website discussing “The Push“, an Australian political/cultural movement in the 1950s and 1960s in Sydney. And it’s quite interesting. It briefly discusses Sydney’s freethought society, founded by John Anderson and the libertarian society founded in the 1950s.
So for those of you who (like me) are fairly ignorant of Australian political history and/or too young to know much about movments from the 50s/60s, you may find this web-site interesting.
It also may be interesting to hear any thoughts on this movment from any readers who know more about it or may have even been involved.
Incidentally, I am strongly oppossed to taxpayers paying for websites such as this to exist. I definitely don’t think it’s the job of our government to write political history, or to attempt to control or even define Australian culture.
War with Russia next on the agenda
The Americans are currently on the offensive; they are simultaneously conducting military operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and Iran. Although the military is stretched thin, ABC News recently reported that vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin is open to the possibility of a war against Russia:
When asked if Georgia joined NATO, whether the United States should go to war if the country was again invaded by Russia, Palin responded: “Perhaps so. I mean, that is the agreement when you are a NATO ally, is if another country is attacked, you’re going to be expected to be called upon and help.”
The justification provided by Palin for going to war with Russia (that it’s a NATO obligation) should make us pause. NATO is an “entangling alliance” — precisely what Thomas Jefferson warned against. If America has to fight Russia because of NATO, then that’s a good reason for the US re-consider its involvement in that organisation. To be explicit: America needs to get out of NATO if war is the cost of remaining a member.
In the interview, Governor Palin also distorts the facts of the recent Russia-Georgia war. Although it’s hard to place complete blame on either side, it’s clear that Georgia was the initial aggressor. It is misleading to suggest that Russia’s attack was unprovoked.
In any case, confronting Russia at a time when the US is already involved in multiple wars would be most unwise.
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